Opinion

Government shutdown threatens scientific research

If Congress allows the government to shut down on Tuesday, the nation's investments in scientific research and technological innovation will suffer irreparable harm, resulting in a loss of crucial projects, new technologies and jobs for Americans.

Here's why I hope Wisconsin Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson not only work to avoid a government shutdown but also fully fund scientific research: Beyond expanding the sum of human knowledge, federally funded scientific research grows our economy and improves the quality of life for all Americans.

Since the end of World War II, more than half of American economic growth can be traced to science-driven technological innovation. Consider the federally funded National Science Foundation. Its decades of science funding paved the way for innovations as seemingly disparate as the MRI, DVD, Doppler radar and a whole host of other advances too numerous to count. And while NSF's budget is only a tiny fraction of the federal budget, economists agree the return on investment on taxpayer money is significant.

Johnson himself understands the remarkable impact technological advances can have — as he has mentioned in Senate floor speeches, his daughter, Carey, was born with a serious congenital heart defect. Fortunately, Carey is alive and well today, thanks to advanced imaging techniques such as MRIs and multiple life-saving surgeries performed in her first year of life. Imagine how many more lives we can save if the federal government maintains robust, sustained funding for scientific research.

Many life-saving technologies trace their roots to fundamental scientific research. Nobody knew what scientists would discover when they began studying the fundamental properties of atoms. It was only after decades of work, supported by federal funds, that researchers discovered a phenomenon called nuclear magnetic resonance, a key ingredient in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, now manufactured by GE Healthcare in Waukesha. MRIs are used today for a wide range of diagnostic purposes, such as detecting cancerous tumors. Without this initial federally funded research, we never would have reaped the life-saving rewards of MRIs.

Technologies we use every day have the same origin stories. The Internet, which has spawned an entire new sector of the economy, was created by projects funded, in part, by NSF dollars. The NSF awarded Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, a graduate student fellowship; these funds supported his work on what would become the core of the Google search engine.

Similarly, the Siri digital assistant, capacitive sensing technology, multi-touch screens, GPS, lithium-ion batteries and silicon-based semiconductors all had their origins in federally funded research projects. Ultimately, Apple bought the technologies and integrated them into the iPhone.

I understand the nation is grappling with difficult economic times and that Americans must tighten their fiscal belts. But we should not eat our scientific seed corn that has yielded tremendous economic dividends and life-saving innovations. History has shown time and again that the long-term benefits of investing in scientific research are clear.

A government shutdown would disrupt American scientific progress, at great cost to us all.

Kenneth Rudinger is a PhD graduate student in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Physics Department and a member of the American Physical Society.